NC Waterfalls

I'm on a journey around NC mountains to visit most of the major waterfalls. Two weeks ago I visited the Lower Falls on Bubbling Spring Branch and posted a picture of them in the ESS gallery. This week's pick was Soco Falls and Mingo Falls, but I only made it to Soco falls before all the clouds blew away making very bad shooting conditions. Here is a image from Soco Falls. This beauty is actually right off the road (hwy 19) unlike the one mile creek wade to the previous falls. The area used to be some bonehead's garbage dump, but somebody has cleaned up the area quite well (I still saw a few tires, bottles, etc.). What makes this such a unique water fall is it is actually two creeks that fall and merge here at the same place. I would say that they fall at about 90 deg angles to each other, with one being slightly taller than the other one (If I can guess the height's I would say 30ft for the smaller on 40ft for the taller one). You can actually stand at the top of the shorter falls and shoot the taller one. The area around the falls has many photo opportunities with rocks, trees, and ground on the embankment and surrounding areas covered in dense bright green moss. The image above is about as close as I could get without constantly wiping my lens due to over spray. If any one is interested the falls is located on hwy 19 between Maggie Valley and Cherokee, NC. If coming from Maggie Valley/Waynesville (toward Cherokee) pass the Blue Ridge Parkway entrance then keep going on hwy 19 for about 1.5 miles. There is a small pull off on the left side of the road. Then there is a short path that leads to a observation deck, and another path that leads to the base of the falls. Be careful going to the base of the falls, it is very slippery, more so after a rain.
Alternative Views: Alt View 1
Alt View 2

If anybody finds this kind of information useful and would like me to continue with other waterfalls/scenic sites, please let me know. Matthew, if this is inappropriate please let me know so I can remove this post.

Image info:
Canon 40D @ 18mm
ISO 100
F16
1/2 sec & 1/5 sec (Hand blended)

Beautiful shots Daniel. I like the detailed info provided and the commentary on the "bonehead" litterbugs. Sadly, they are the ones NOT looking at these images and perhaps could not read what you said about them anyway. Perhaps shots of the garbage sent to the appropriate agencies might get some action on prevention. Who knows. I love the shots

Great shots! It really is too bad about the garbage. Here is a good link I found that has locations and names of quite a few of NCs waterfalls. Hope it helps!

http://geology.com/waterfalls/north-carolina.shtml

What a beautiful scene and photograph!

Rich Stevenson http://www.ncwaterfalls.com/

Nice shot Daniel , check out above he has the best site on NC waterfalls .
Don

Daniel,
Very nice, I've been to Mingo Falls a few times and have never stopped here-next time I will because of how good you made it look!

Thanks for all the comments!

David - I'll look into what I can do with your suggestion about the litter.

Eric and Don - Thanks for the website links! (If I actually visit all the places around here that I want to I might start a website of my own )

Thanks again for the encouragement.

Fantastic shots, Daniel. It breaks my heart about the garbage tho. Punishment for these type of folks would be to live at the city dump for a month.

This is just stunning. I can hear the angels singing.

Hi Daniel, I started hitting some of the NC waterfalls around Highlands, Brevard, etc. last summer. What a blast, eh? Hopefully the drought will not persist this year.